There are three things you need to know in order to be successful. Without these three things you will never know what success is. The three things you need to know are:

  1. What you want
  2. What’s stopping you from getting what you want
  3. And how to get what you want.

If you know these three things you will be well on your way to fulfilling your dreams. Allow me to take a few minutes to explain each of these. You will finish reading armed with knowledge and inspired by new ideas which you know will be your own expression of life.

1. The first thing you need to know is what you want. That might sound simple enough but how many really know what they want? What is your goal in life? To work hard and retire at 65 and then enjoy life? Maybe you never thought of it that way, but that is exactly how many live their lives. They think that by working hard and paying into a pension fund and maybe retiring a few years early is living a life. I say, get a life! And I mean that literally. Get your own life! Decide what you want to have, do or be. Many people know what they would like, but never believe they could actually have it. They lack the faith in life itself to deliver their dream.

I want to let you know that “If you can dream it, you can do it.” Walt Disney said that and he is right. You can have whatever you want, you can do whatever you want, and you can be whatever you want.

  • The first step towards achieving that is to write it down. Get a piece of paper and write it down. Write as if it already is now, give it colour, give it sound, give it lots of detail. What is it like to have what you want now, how does it feel, what does it look like, what people do you have around you? Get as much detail into your description as you can imagine.
  • Once you have your written dream now spend time living it. Experience the feelings in having your dream. Get in the vibration of having it now – and hold onto that feeling and hold onto your vision. Doing this will begin to attract it to you. Believe me. Things will begin to happen and ideas will begin to flow. Pay attention to these, these are the answers to your unspoken question: “How am I going to get there?”

2. The next thing you need to know to be successful and achieve your dreams is what is stopping you. What is holding you back? Why haven’t you got there already? Even if you have a written description what is it which is blocking you from moving forward and achieving that which you desire? I am going to suggest two things which are most likely responsible for stopping you getting what you want:

  • The first is Mind Sets – Paradigms. Mind sets such as “I am going to work hard and retire at 65 and live a good life.” I say this with a robot voice because this is nothing other than a programmed thought in your sub-conscious mind. You have many such mind sets, like “I can never do that”, “I can never be successful”, “I can never achieve greatness”, “Such things are only for the elite and privileged and multi-talented.” Dear friend, may I divulge a secret? You are multi-talented and you are among the privileged and you can achieve whatever you dream of.
  • The second thing stopping you from achieving your dreams is FEAR. Fear is actually another mind set, but I mention it because this is perhaps the single most restricting mind-set of all. Fear stops more people from being successful than any other thing. This can be fear of people, fear of failure – that’s a big one, fear of change. So much fear stops people even wanting to be successful so they never dare to even dream. One should be content they say. Not everyone can be successful they say. But deep down it is fear which holds them back.

If you have identified fear as that which is stopping you from doing what you want then pay attention to the third thing you should know to be successful.

3. The third thing to know to be successful is how to get what you want. OK, you have described your goal, and you identified the blockages. What now? How do you move forward to get what you want?

  • The first step you already know – Visualize it. This is very important in order to get into the feeling of success, and visualization should be ongoing and never stop.
  • After this, you need to determine the first three things you need to do to get you closer to your goal. Write down these three activities and decide when you are going to do them, and then put them into your calendar. The next step is of course to take action and carry out those three activities. Then when those three are completed write down the next three actions which will take you closer yet to your goal.

This third point may also seem very simple and commonsensical, but it’s exactly here where many people fail. They fail to take action. Dreams come and go but only those taking action actually fulfill their dreams.

This is where coaches come in. A coach can help you in all three of these areas, helping you identify and describe your deepest desire and life goals, uncover and eliminate those mind sets and fears which are holding you back, and motivate and monitor you as you determine your action steps and put them into practice.

You know what it is that you want. You may know what is holding you back, and you may even know what to do to get there, but you lack the motivation and knowledge to move into the realm of the successful achievers. Get a coach to guide you towards your dreams and celebrate your successes with you.